Erie leaders keep eyes on High Plains Library District dispute

Melanie Larson works with her boys, Grant, left, and Brady, on a home schooling lesson at the Erie library Wednesday. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

After a judge this week blocked an attempt by some of its founding communities to supplant the High Plains Library District's elected trustees, Erie Mayor Pro Tem Mark Gruber says however the power struggle is settled, the town needs to have a voice in the district's leadership.

Erie, home to a High Plains library since 2008, has remained neutral during the district's recent dust-up.

The situation stems from a disagreement over who has authority to dictate policy in certain libraries. It heated up in April when six of the district's founding members voted to remove the seven-member board of trustees and replace it with their own representatives.

On Tuesday, Weld County District Court Judge Julie Hoskins issued a preliminary injunction blocking the board takeover until she can rule on a lawsuit brought by the district against those displeased members.

Erie is not a party to the lawsuit, and though the town's leadership has been silent on the dispute to date, it doesn't mean officials aren't paying attention.

"Our concern is representation on whatever future board comes out of the disagreement between the two parties," Gruber said.

Though he has not spoken directly with the rest of the Erie Board of Trustees about the disagreement, Gruber said he thinks Erie should steer clear of the legal battle while keeping a watchful eye to ensure its interests are protected.

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"In my opinion, our position should be that Erie should be represented on any board that is running the library district because of the amount of utilization that we get in our town for our library," he said.

Erie is home to about 7,000 school-aged children, Gruber said, making Erie Community Library, 400 Powers St., a popular place.

According to manager Tony Brewer, Erie Community Library has nearly 13,000 registered borrowers. The town has a total population of about 21,500 people, according to its website, meaning about 60 percent of residents are library patrons.

Power struggle

The library district is made up of "branch libraries," overseen internally, and "member libraries," which have their own boards and kept distinct policies when they joined High Plains.

About two years ago, a fissure began to form between the district and its member libraries when High Plains moved to replace its central computer system and also put in place more uniform policies across the various libraries.

"What we tried to do was clarify many years of discrepancies in rules and regulations between the district and member libraries," High Plains spokeswoman Kelli Johnson said last month.

The district proposed an arrangement whereby those libraries that adopt the streamlined policies would continue to receive strong support, while those that did not would keep their autonomy and share of property taxes but would have to buy and catalogue their own books and handle their own technology, loan services and outreach.

Many member communities rebelled against the effort. Leaders from Weld County, the towns of Ault, Fort Lupton, Eaton and Hudson and the Fort Lupton School District have since voted to unseat the board and replace it with a county commissioner, the mayors of the four towns and the president of the Fort Lupton School Board.

The district responded April 15 by filing a lawsuit seeking to stop the takeover on the basis it was illegal.

'No formal position'

Erie's library, libraries in Kersey, Firestone and three locations in Greeley are branch libraries managed by the district.

The Firestone Board of Trustees last week sent a letter calling the attempts to oust the board a "power grab." That letter pushes for the dispute to be settled out of court through mediation.

Erie, to this point, has not entered the fray.

"The town has taken no formal position but it is our expectation that High Plains Library District provide the citizens of Erie with the highest levels of service regardless of who is in charge," Fred Diehl, assistant to the town administrator, said in an email Tuesday.

In her ruling granting the injunction, Hoskins said she was most concerned with the fact that the replacement board would only represent an estimated 14 percent of the district's population.

"The purported board members were not selected in a way that holds them accountable to anyone but the 14 percent who have taken part in this action," Hoskins said.

The current board divides the district into six geographic areas, with one seat from each, plus one at-large spot.

Erie shares an area with Firestone and Frederick, and would not be represented on the replacement board.

The injunction will remain in place until Hoskins can rule on the district's lawsuit. A trial date has not been set.

The current board may not take any new action during the injunction period but may carry on with existing policies, according to the ruling.

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